Georgics
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Georgics Book III, Shepherd with Flocks, Vatican |
The Georgics, written in
29 BC, is the second major work by the Latin poet
Virgil. Its subject is rural life and farming and the work is generally categorized as a "
didactic poem".
The work contains 2188
hexametric verses divided into four books. Books one and two deal with
agriculture (respectively crops and trees). Books three and four deal with the keeping of animals, book three concerned with different kinds of
cattle breeding and book four especially with
beekeeping. However, the didactic subject is merely the surface of the poem. The underlying theme is the beauty of the countryside, and in Georgica IV, the didactics are a cover to the wonderful story of
Orpheus and
Euridice.
The poem also has a political dimension. Virgil's patron
Maecenas, in whose honor the poem was written, was a confidant and advisor to
Caesar Augustus, and he used his patronage to influence the great poets of his time, Virgil and
Horace, to write about themes supportive of Augustus' political interests. Thus, the poem's praise of rural life can be seen to reflect Augustus' desire to restore agricultural activity in Italy after its devastation by
civil war.
The Georgics are influenced by
Hesiod, whose
Works and Days was regarded as the first work of didactic poetry, but references to
Hellenistic poets
Aratus and
Nicander are more numerous. Also
Lucretius'
On the Nature of Things (
De Rerum Natura) is heavily echoed.
*
Bugonia*
The Georgics at MIT
* French translations: Bibliotheca Classica Selecta:
Georgiques* Gutenberg Project:
Georgics (English)
